Above image: The Far Side, by Gary Larson

I decided to up my blogging by purchasing a domain name and hosted website, where I can improve on the frontend UI/X and backend functionality, such as improving the overall look and feel, and incorporating Google Analytics, allowable scripting, etc.

I transferred my former free blog account (since 2011) from wordpress.com to wordpress.org, via a hosting service out of Arizona Bluehost. For the most part, Bluehost has courteous customer service, but the transfer of my new DNS (Domain Name Server) NewBrandThinking.ca from GoDaddy (Bluehost does not sell .ca domains), took about 24 hours with much confusion.

My 1st phone call to Bluehost last Friday night involved me logging into my GoDaddy account to change the 2 name servers and make them point to Bluehost. Ok. Done.

I was still unable to see a live version of my new website, so my 2nd call to Bluehost that same evening claimed that I needed to visit a website called Global DNS Propagation Checker that indicated propagation status throughout all the relevant 20+ global servers, from USA to Australia, India, Europe, South East Asia, etc. The page showed a majority of red Xs and some green check marks—the former meaning no propagation while the latter was a successful propagation. So I needed to wait.

My side conversation with Bluehost support was telling them that it’s less expensive for us Vancouverites to travel to Arizona, watch the Canucks play, than to see them at a home game in Vancouver. Go figure.

My 3rd call to Bluehost Saturday morning involved an uncanny situation. As I was working on my site, I couldn’t see a live version. More specifically, as I was logged onto my ISP from home, I couldn’t see the site, but as I logged off (on my iPhone’s WiFi) I was able to see the live version. Perplexing.

During this call, the support person had no answer and I was told to contact my ISP and GoDaddy to find out why. So I contacted my ISP first, and after close to 2 hours of doing some checks and then finding out that 2 DNS numbers were conflicting—the old from GoDaddy and the new from Bluehost—ISP claimed the delay was on the Bluehost side.

Thus, I contacted Bluehost for the 4th time to recap my story. The previous supports didn’t mention anything about DNS conflicts as they claimed that they can see my live website on their end. But this call was more informative than the previous ones—he confirmed that there was a DNS conflict, where this was acceptable and normal, and that I needed to revisit that propagation checker website. So mostly green but only a few reds. Fair enough. The wait was still on late Saturday night. Then Sunday morning—only one DNS number with no conflicts. All the wait and inconvenience was worth it. Finally. Let’s get this baby off the ground.

The wordpress.org theme I’m using on this site is developed by AccessPress, specifically their popular Parallax theme.

Thank you to award-winning social-media strategist Tracy Bains for the inspiration in creating a new blog website.

Stay tuned for more upcoming, inviting content.